


And the Sun answered

by Alexander_Wesker



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animal Death, Before and at the start of the canon events, Firebender!Sokka, Gen, Gift from Agni, Light Angst, Sokka becomes a firebender, Spirits, but not in details
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24606454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_Wesker/pseuds/Alexander_Wesker
Summary: Sokka was only ten years old, his father had left for war almost six month ago. Because of this he was the Chief and he would've been fine with it. If it wasn't that the Long Night was arriving and the village wasn't ready.Sokka didn't know what to do, his science couldn't help him, so he tried asking the spirits, even if he didn't believe in them.He prayed, and prayed.And instead of the Ocean or the Moon. The Sun answered his prayers.
Comments: 143
Kudos: 466





	1. Chapter 1

Sokka was only ten years old, his father had left for war almost six month ago. And even if he was just ten years old he had to take the mantle of chief of the tribe. And he was fine with it... completely fine if it wasn't that the Long Night was starting long before it should have.  
He hadn't have the time to prepare the village for it, there wasn't enough food, there wasn't enough wood to keep the fires going, they were all gonna die, and _it was only his fault_.

Sokka always thought of himself as a man of science, he didn't belive in spirits and what not. But with the Long Night so close and with the little preparation they had for it. Sokka could do nothing more then pray. He tried for the Ocean and for the Moon, Tui and La, to ask them for just a little bit more time, but they didn't answer. The Long Night continued approaching.

So in a last attempt, he asked the Sun Spirit, the one he should never even call by name because he was the beloved spirit of the Fire Nation. But it was his only chance, the only left. So without even knowing what were the Fire Nation's rites to pray to their Spirit, he tried.

  
And the Sun answered.

  
He was sure of that because the day after the sun was high in the sky instead of lowering slowly as it had been doing for the last couple of weeks.   
_He had done it!_ Sokka thought. Now he had more time to prepare the village for the Long Night. But first he thanked the Sun Spirit that had answered his prayers, and for a moment while he was doing so it felt like the sun got just a little brighter, smiling at him.

And smiling he was. Agni was impressed by the strenght of that little wolf son of the Ocean, that had called to him, with all his heart, humble and kind. Asking without knowing for his blessing, and even if the boy was a son of Tui, he gave it to him. The little wolf had all the right characteristics to be a good firebender, he was kind and loyal and fierce. He already had a sparkle of sunlight in his soul in the form of his warrior spirit, Agni just helped the sparkle grow into a flame.

The boy needed it. He needed every little help he could if he wanted to protect his tribe. And since nor the Ocean nor the Moon wanted to answer to one of their sons, Agni was glad to do it instead.

* * *

  
The first time Sokka used his firebending was complitely by accident. He was eleven and he was just doing motions with his hands, imitating what he had seen his little sister Katara do while she was waterbending. He knew he was a non-bender but he just... _wanted to try_.

When the flame, a shy little red flare, left his hand as he completed the motion. He was suddenly glad he had done it while he was completely alone, and at the same time he was terrified. That... _couldn't be true_. He was a Water tribesman, he couldn't be a firebender. _They were all evil_! Just like their Nation.  
He promised to himself that this thing would have been his secret and that he'd never bend again.

* * *

  
The second time, even if he had promised to never use it again, was because he was angry and scared. His spear broken and useless and a bear-seal snarling in front of him.   
The beast was massive, with a head as big as Sokka's chest, and a mouth full of long, jagged sharp fangs. It leaped, its big clawed paws extended towards him.

Sokka didn't think, he just moved his hands as if to try to shield himself and a bright yellow-orange flame followed his movements. The beast stopped itself, scared.  
But as Sokka remembered his control of the flame, his fear turned to rage. He didn't know towards what exactly, there was so much he was angry for: the fact that he had to care for the whole village even if he was just eleven, the fact that his father had not even sent a letter or something to let them know if he was still alive, his hatred toward the stupid Fire Nation and its firebenders and the war they started, and the hatred towards himself because he was the very thing the whole world was scared of. All of that, mixed up together like an explosive concoction and he just let it all out.   
He let out a scream, almost a roar, as he moved his hands and body by instinct. Bright flames trailed his every movement, the bear-seal almost whimpered, almost bolted away, but couldn't because before it tried to escape, a hot orange-blue flame of anger and hatred enveloped it.

Sokka came back to himself as the animal started shrieking and screaming as the flames burned it alive. He stopped the flame but it was too late.

  
Looking at the charred black thing that had been a living creature he felt... _sick_. _He felt like a monster_.

For a moment he thought that he should just let himself die in the snow, but just for a moment. He knew he couldn't do it. He was the chief of the tribe, he was the one that everyone was counting on.  
So he took his spear, and trying to not look back at what had been a bear-seal, he returned to the village.

* * *

  
The third time he used his firebending, he was fourteen and almost three years had passed from the attack of the bear-seal. And this time he used it consciously, calling to that flame he felt deep inside his own being, because he was freezing and he was trapped in an ice cave. 

He called the flame, hoping that it would respond even after all the years he passed trying to smother it, to extinguish it. The flame did answer nonetheless.   
A little, bright flame burning in his hands, without hurting him. It was was warm and for the first time he found it... _beautiful_. 

After he stopped freezing, he started working on how to free himself. And looking at the flame in his hands, he found the way. Slowly, trying to work out how to move to control the flames better he melted the ice, making his way out. 

For the first time since he discovered what he was. He felt _complete_ , the fire singing in his soul at his acceptance.   
Even if he still decided to keep it a secret, he slowly started working to understand his bending, and to control it, as Katara did with hers.

* * *

  
The fourth time he used it, was the time in which is he had to reveal his secret. 

The Fire Prince was there, angry, golden eyes looking like molten metal, and he was snarling and shouting orders, and threatening his village.

Sokka knew he could have just used his trusty boomerang or his spear, but he also knew that those weren't as fast as his fire was.  
He tried to buy time, taking all the attention of the Prince on himself, by insulting him, and talking and talking. He was good at talking almost as he was good at spitting fire like a dragon, not that he had ever seen one, he just knew that they existed.. _once_.

When the Prince reached trying to grab Gran-Gran to do who-knows-what, Sokka acted.

As his orange-blue fire shoot towards the soldiers, all the attention fell on him, from the firebender's to that of his people, but he ignored it. As he continued showering fire against the firebenders who dissipated his attacks: some with ease, others not so much. But they were retreating and that was all he cared about at the moment.  
As he braced himself taking a deep breath, reading himself to spit it out as fire, what he never wanted to happen, happened. Katara returned with Aang by her side, and her gaze fearful and shocked fell on him as fire left his mouth. He almost lost control but he couldn't, he couldn't hurt her or the others, not even the firebenders and he knew that his fire was hotter when he did this, so he fought to mantain a steady control on his fire.

The Prince blocked his attack with his own red-orange fire. He looked wary now, if surprised. And yet, something else changed in the way he was acting. After he blocked his fire, he didn't try to retaliate, instead he just repeated the he was there for the Avatar, and the Avatar alone, his voice calm and leveled.

And so they discovered that Aang was the Avatar as he let the Fire Prince take him on his ship.

"We have to save him" he said, breaking the silence. Trying to act as if he hadn't just firebent in front of all of them.  
And while he could ignore the stares that the others were giving him he couldn't ignore how distraught, by what he had done or maybe what he was, she looked.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly, her eyes big and teary.

"I... I didn't... I didn't want to scare you.. as I did now..." Sokka answered, lowering his head.

"You... thought I was scared of you? I was scared for you! Because you went and attacked trained firebenders... with the little you know about firebending!" she answered, her voice high and shocked as if she couldn't believe that he really thought that she would be scared of him because he could firebend.

"So... you weren't.... aren't... scared of me?" He asked, his voice weak and hopeful, he had past so much of his life since discovering his ' _gift_ ' scared that she would reject him, tell him that she didn't see him as a brother anymore.

Katara didn't answer instead she hugged him. "Of course I'm not scared of you! You are my brother, Sokka! No matter what!"

And in hearing those words the heavy weight that Sokka had beared for all this time lifted. And he smiled, not crying because warriors, men like him didn't cry(...much) and hugged her back.

Then they ended the hug and Katara smiled slightly at him. "Well this explains why you are so warm, all the time" 

Sokka nodded. And then: "We have to go. Aang is in the hands of that jerkbender prince!" he exclamed, as if remembering of it just now.

And so they went. Katara the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, Appa the not-so flying bison and Sokka the first firebender of the Southern Water Tribe. _In front of them an adventure that would have changed the world... and_ _maybe just, maybe stopped a war that was going on from far too long_.


	2. Fire-breathing Wolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko's pov of the village scene and his thoughts after as the Avatar escapes from him for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since lots of people wanted me to continue this story I did! I hope you'll like this chapter too!

It had been three years since he had been exiled from his nation... _by his own father_ , sent out in search of the Avatar. He was to bring the coward to the Fire Nation, so that he could be imprisoned, so that his Nation could be even more certain to win the war, so that... _he could return home and have his honor restored_.

But for three years he hadn't had the slightest fortune in finding him... until... well until the beacon of light that slashed the darkening sky of the south pole, a light so bright so unnatural that it could have been caused only by a spirit, or, if he was lucky, the Avatar himself.

Zuko wasn't sure of how much time had passed between the sight of the light and that of an old emergency flare that helped him find the village, in which the Avatar was hiding. Again, for being the saviour of the world, the one fabled to be the bringer of peace and a guarantor of balance, he was just a _coward_ hiding in the middle of nowhere. Not that Zuko cared that made it even more clear that his Nation was truly in the right if even the Avatar didn't want to stop them.  
When he arrived at the village he was expecting a bit more than what he found, but they were just savages, of course they didn't live in cities or in at least in a more organized way than whatever was that their village was made of. 

He ignored the fear that he saw in the paesants' faces, he ignored the defiance with which their youngest looked at him, he wasn't there to harm them, he was there just for the Avatar. And that he said to them, but they kept quiet, protecting that old coward and he felt his anger rise. He threatened their village, and saw how tense one of the boys - _the one with his face covered in white, gray and black face paint that made him look like an actor impersonating a spirit, more than anything remotely threatening_ \- became at that. 

Still Zuko dismissed it, not even this savage tribesman could be so stupid to attack him, not with his men so near, read to bend fire onto the village. He picked an old woman from the crowd, she looked old enough to be used as a good comparison for what the Avatar could look like - maybe she was the Avatar - but as he went to grab her by her arm, something he never expected to happen, happened.

  
The boy with the face paint took a stance, barely recognizable as any he had ever saw and started throwing flames against Zuko and his soldiers. His fire hot and angry and filled with something else, orange and blue mixed togheter. Zuko and his men started blocking his attacks, and Zuko's red flame almost wasn't enough against that onslaught of almost completely blue fire. 

_How could a Water Tribe savage been blessed with Blue Fire when he couldn't even be enough with his firebending? How could that boy be so..._ well versed in the firebending katas _? Even if his movements were a little off, a little too slick, a little to soft and quick... but effective nontheless. What in_ Agni's Grace _was a firebending prodigy as this doing in this backwater village of savages when he could have been fighting for the Fire Nation, showering their enemies with his blue fire as he was doing with them now?!_

  
Zuko diverted another blast of almost-blue fire. And steadied himself for another one, but it didn't came. The firebender prodigy, that was almost his age if his looks didn't decive him, had stopped, but he didn't seem out of breath or fatigued, he was just... still... and was taking in slow, deep breaths. 

Zuko noticed that his Uncle was gesturing him and their men to get back, he almost looked surprised and allarmed, as if he knew what the other firebender was doing. Zuko had just enough time to step back a little before the Water Tribe firebender, with glowing golden-yellow eyes as that of a lionwolf, opened his mouth, a jet of almost-blue fire leaving it and Zuko and his soldiers, his crew, had to give their everything to stop that blazing inferno that was so hot and so furious, yet the flames felt... _scared_ , sputtering out sparkles as they got divided and put out. As if the firebender that was spitting them was scared... _what could a boy so gifted been scared of? He was a gift from Agni, he was perfect even if he was in the wrong side of the battle, why was he....-_

As Zuko put out the last of the flame the realized why the other firebender was so scared, he was in a land of enemies, he was in a land that tried to kill him for six months every year, surrounded by savages that would have skinned and killed him if they had known what he was, throwing his body in the sea so that his soul was forever condemned to stay imprisoned in his rotting, bloated body...

  
Zuko looked in those yellow-golden eyes, a shade so near his own that if he didn't knew that is Uncle hadn't taken part in the Southern Raids he would have thought that the boy was _his_ bastard son... _he had the same shockingly kind eyes_. He looked into them and saw a boy scared of his own power, a boy that... _was scared of his own fire_. And felt something deep down in his soul, he had to save him... and yet... first he had to... he had to capture the Avatar. If he could go back to his Nation, if he could tell Father of this young prodigy... _he would be saved_. _Yes, he would do that. Capture the Avatar and save this firebender at the same time._

Luckly the Avatar showed his face shortly after the confrontation, after he had repeated his request, calm and level-minded and determinated. The Avatar... was just a child, and if it wasn't that he knew how dangerous he could be... he would have felt _guilty_ for what he was going to do.

And so he left, with the Avatar in tow. And ordering two of his crew to convince the firebender of the village to come with them, he had to be sure that the boy was safe... because who knows what those savages could do to him while he tries to help. 

  
Not that that happened, and when he realized that the two hadn't gone and picked the boy as he ordered them to, they were already too far from the village. He forced down flames and smoke, and quickly prayed Agni to protect the boy, while he went to control their prisoner and... talk with those two.

But again it happeared that the Spirits weren't by his side, and maybe that was because he had captured the ' _bridge between this and the Spirit world_ '(which was more of a possibility that he wanted to think about), because the Avatar had escaped his jailer, and now was on the bridge. 

He tried to capture him again and that was when the 'boy' appeared again, with a young waterbender, and both of them on a flying six-legged monster. The waterbender moved the waves to make it difficult to Zuko and his crew to keep balance while the boy shot accurate fireballs near them, but not near enough to actually hurt them, just to... keep them away as they landed. The Avatar got on the monster. Talking with the two, calling the girl Katara and the boy... _Sokka_. Such a Water Tribe name for that boy it didn't suit him at all, there was to much fire in him for a water name like that to feel... right for him, of course if those savages had somehow kidnapped a Fire Nation baby it was obvious that they would have called him like one of their own, to cancel his heritage. Zuko looked at them as they flied away, the yellow-golden eyes of the other firebender clear in his mind as if he was seeing them right now, those eyes that looked a little to much like his own in color and emotions, and thought that... _Kira_... yes, that was a name that suited him more. 

He came back to reality as his Uncle called him, and then he snapped orders at his crew to ' _follow the Avatar_ '. 

Now completing his mission seemed possible, now he knew who the Avatar was and knew that he could capture him, _take back his honor and save another boy that was as far from home as him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does Zuko sees Sokka's eyes as yellow instead of blue...? Well, it has something to do with the particularities of Sokka's firebending, since his is a direct gift from Agni and not something genetic... ;)  
> And well, yeah, Zuko drew his... conclusions about why Sokka is in the Southern Water Tribe.
> 
> Kira= is a japanese name that means 'light' or 'sparkle' and that's why Zuko thinks that it is more suited for Sokka, because his fire is very bright and his eyes glow like embers.


	3. And finally they were laid to rest.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agni's direct gift gave Sokka a bit more than just firebending.  
> And after hearing the cries of those that were killed... Sokka does the only _honorable_ thing.
> 
> (Set in the Southern Air Temple)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little warning: Some morbid themes ahead, and Sokka does think about death quite a bit in this chapter.

Sokka knew this was a bad idea since the moment it left Aang's mouth. _Going to an old, abandoned Air Temple and for what? Just to let the kid see the remains of his people?_

But Katara insisted, and while Sokka disagreed, he had to keep his temper in check, least he accidentally put something on fire. And so to the old Temple they went.

For a while it was almost okay, just an eerie, empty place filled with silence and rocks and wind. The pictures on the white stone walls chipped and ruined beyond recognition, but otherwise everything was well preserved down to the golden inlays in the sculpted parts, it was almost incredible that they hadn't been salvaged or stolen, though probably the fact that the temple was easly accessible only by sky bison was one of the major reasons.

Aang told them of this and that, filling the eerie silence. He told them of what they did, were they put their pies to cool, he talked about proverbs and games played by the young initiates. But while it was intresting to hear about a lost culture, Sokka wasn't able to focus on his words, distracted by how unsettling the temple felt to him, Katara seemed fine. _But him?_ He was feeling cold and on edge, as if something was hiding in the shadows ready to attack, as if the wind itself was trying to _rip_ through his parka and cut his skin with invisible blades.

 _Was all of this because he was a firebender? Maybe the temple didn't want him there for what '_ his _' people had done... after all even if he wasn't a Fire Nation spawn he was still a firebender, so..._ in the broadest sense they were his people _._

_Not that he liked that._

As they walked, their steps echoing in the empty silence, Aang seemed to lose that joyful attitude as if he was starting to lose hope that anyone had survived, and while Sokka wanted to help him lighten up, he was distracted by something. A whisper in the wind, more of a whimper, really.

He stopped on his tracks, Katara and Aang didn't notice him stopping the first talking to the latter to try and lighten up his morale. Sokka stood still and silent, his inner fire crackling and shivering slightly, there was such... _distress in the air. How could he hadn't notice that, it was like every sound was drowned by a miriad of muted cries_.

He started walking, almost in a trance, his inner fire reculcantly guiding him. There were scorch marks on the stone here, black soot still dirting the white, plants growing on craters and distruction and... Sokka stopped again. _Skeletons_ , a hundred skeletons mangled and mauled littering the floor. Sokka's eyes widened in horror and the hundred years old scene of massacre, yet this weren't airbenders, he didn't know why he was certain but he felt that deep down, in his soul, in his shivering inner fire. That these in front of him were the remains of those firebenders who fell under the wrath of the wind.

Here and there old, rusty pieces of armor broke the stark white of bones and stone. Sokka's eyes fell on a lone skull, his - _how did he know it had been an '_ he _'... how?!_ \- whole body gone scattered across the floor in between the bones of his comrades. He still had his elaborated elm on, the points and ridges eaten away by time, but as the boy looked into the empty orbits, he heard a muted scream of horror. Sokka scrambled back, falling down hard, tripping on a old piece of armor, luckly without its owner still trapped inside, the scream stopping as soon as he looked away. 

  
_What was that?!_

_What had just happened?_

  
The wind was picking up, unnaturally, something in the back of his head cried him to run away. Something else was happening but Sokka couldn't stop thinking at what had just happened, at the scream he heard not with his ears but his own soul. A scream so deep and bloodcurdling that had terrified him. And if he listened closely, if he did it while letting his inner fire breath every single body in the room was screaming. _Were... were they still there? Were these the screams of the men that had..._ slaughtered _Aang's people?_

Sokka didn't believe in ghosts... but after this... maybe, just maybe _they existed_. The boy pushed himself on his feet, still listening to the screams, that slowly quieted into a soft murmur, as if the more he let his inner fire breath the more the fire nation ghosts calmed down. As if they were soothed by the distant warmth of his inner fire.

He almost bolted away, but then his terror... _stopped_. And for a moment he felt it, the barely there warmth of the souls of the soldiers, still trapped into their bodies. They had felt, seen themselves decay, and had silently screamed for a century, hoping that someone would have freed them.

And logically Sokka knew he shouldn't do anything, this men _deserved_ what they got for what they had done, but at the same time, all this men were just soldiers, warriors like his father, even if they were on the wrong side of the war, and the sole thought of _his father spirit trapped in this world like them, looking at himself- No, he couldn't leave them there, to rot even more while they could still... in a sense_ feel _it_. He couldn't leave them like this. But he didn't know what the Fire Nation rites for the dead were... for the Watertribes he would have had to let their bodies sink into the ocean, but he doubted that the Fire Nation did the same.

A thought, unwanted and scary, flashed into his, already confused yet focused, mind... _what if the Fire Nation's rites applied to every firebender? Would that mean that if he had..._ died _and had been buried in the Watertribe's way...-would that mean that his soul would have been trapped like those of these soldiers?_

Sokka shuddered, chilling at the thought of being forever... _trapped_... under the waves, never to see the sun again. The bright sun that since they left the Tribe appeared to have got even brighter and warmer, warming him even more, making him feel _stronger_. Sokka could not imagine to stay the whole eternity without ever seeing the sun again, _it would have killed him even if he was already dead_...

The wind picked up again, and clouds covered the sun. Sokka shivered, the ghosts almost cried again, nearing to him even more. He could feel them even if his eyes didn't see anything.

  
"What should I do?" he asked, his voice low almost lost under the sound of the howling wind... _there was definitely something wrong..._

But despite that and his feeling of unease his inner fire got warmer, and warmer as the ghosts came closer. But no answer came to his question.

  
_What could the Fire Nation do with their deads? Did they bury them as the earthbenders do? No... he couldn't see firbenders lying their deads in the dirt, expecially if their spirits remained so bonded to their bodies... what could it...-_

  
_Fire_.

  
The Fire Nation's inhabitants were first and foremost _firebenders_... and every bender was laid to rest into their element. Waterbenders in the Ocean, earthbenders lowered in the soil, airbenders probabily left to the wind somehow... so by that logic, firebender would prefer to be freed by their element. Burned to cut their bond with their bodies.  
But there were too many bodies he couldn't burn every single one of them, one at a time.

So with new determination, even if he knew that he should have just let them suffer for what they had done, starting the war, Sokka picked up the bones that were the farthest form the others and putting them all togheter. The ghosts around him were definitely calmer, _grateful_.

When he had gathered all the bones in one spot, which took less time than he had expected. He took a breath, calm and steady, and lit a fire onto his palm. The flame crackling stronger than it had ever been, a bright blue glow dissipating the darkness of the sunless day. 

The ghost grateful as they were seemed almost awed, as if he was something special, and Sokka almost _smiled_ to them, as if they were older warriors that he was happy to had impressed. But he reined in his smile, these were Fire Nation soldiers, even if they were dead, and their awe, their approval didn't matter to him. ( _Even if it did, it felt... good to be accepted like this. Because even if Katara hadn't rejected him, she had still shivered when he sent fireballs against the metal deck of the Prince's ship. These ghosts instead were approving and accepting... and it wasn't that bad of a feeling even if they were the_ enemy _..._ )

"I... don't know what to say... or if I even should say something" Sokka said awkwardly to the silence and the invisible ghosts in it. "I..I hope the Sun spirit will welcome you... you were good _warriors_..." he concluded lamely, feeling almost embrassed by how lame his whole speech was, while adding an ' _I hope_ ' in his mind at the end of what he had just said.

Then with a little movement, the pyre was ignited, the dry bones catched on fire quickly as wood, the rusty metal creaked and then melted in the hot blue flame.  
A rush of warmth filled his soul, pure gratitude filling the air he breathed and that his fire consumed. And then it was over and Sokka was left alone in front of the still brightly burning pyre.

  
"Sokka!" 

Katara's voice had him snap his head to the source of the sound. She was there, Aang with her... he looked like he had cried. "Where were _you_?!" she asked almost in a shout, then she saw the pyre. She looked at him confused, and demanding an explaination all the same.

While Aang, whose eyes were red and puffy as if he had cried for a while, looked at him seriously, giving him only a slight nod... as if he was... _What? Accepting what he had done? Forgiving him for having brought peace to the one that_ slaughtered _his people?_

"I... I just..." he started not knowing fully what to say, his eyes falling to the scorch marks on the ground. "I just... _they were screaming_ , Katara..."

" _They_?... Sokka, what are you...? No-one was screaming"

  
"The _soldiers_... the... _Fire Nation warr_ \- soldiers, they were screaming... and... and they were trapped in their own dead bodies... and... I, I know I shouldn't have... that they deserved this... all of this for what they had done... but... then I thought... and... and if instead of unknown soldiers... if... if it was _our father_? And... if... if someone left him to rot? Trapped... and alone... and crying and screaming not heard by anyone? I just... I just couldn't leave them like that... I'm... I'm so-" His babbling was interrupted by an hug. Aang didn't say a word and just hugged him a little tighter when he stopped talking.

  
"Even if I don't agree with you..."a short pause, his sister's gaze on the blue fired pyre. " _You did the right thing, Sokka_ " And the she hugged him too.

And when they left the Temple, with a new 'friend' a flying lemur, Katara told him of what had happened to them while he was freeing the soldier's souls, ( _and with him feeling guilty to have_ freed _the_ _people who were responsable for Aang's mentor death even if indirectly_ ). While looking up to the sky, his guilt heavy in his chest, Sokka felt the warm rays of the sun smile at him with the warmth of a hundred more smiles... 

_And maybe, just maybe he felt his guilt lessen just a little in knowing that those warriors were finally... '_ home _'._


	4. The only good firebender is a dead firebender

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don't go as planned at Kyoshi Island.  
> And Sokka is the one who pays the price.

"So, do you even know were are we going?" Sokka asked Aang, who was on top of Appa's head guiding the bison... _somewhere_ , without looking at him his eyes pointed on the map he had put down on the saddle after he felt his hands heaten up in frustration.

"Uh... _to the North Pole_?" Aang said, his voice unsure.

"And pray tell how would we get to the North Pole by going South?" Sokka took some deep breaths trying to calm his fire down, he had been more irritated than usual lately, though he wasn't sure of why. Maybe it was because he had let himself more open to his inner fire, and as far as he knew firebenders were always angry. Or maybe it was because they had finished all the seal jerky and he was starving for some meat, nuts and berries weren't as good as meat was to keep him and his inner fire sated. "Honestly for being someone who can quite literally fly your sense of direction is... terrible" he added after some moments, trying to soften the harshness of what he had said previously.

Aang bowed his head slightly, an awkward, slightly embarrassed smile on his face. "Yeah, it's not the best... but well _eventually_ get there anyway, right?" 

"Yeah, but it would be too much of a detour, and we don't have the supplies for that"

"Sokka calm down" Katara said, abruptly butting in the their 'discussion'. Sokka looked at her read to say ' _I am calm_ ' but then he saw that her eyes were pointed at his hands, wide and worried.

He looked down, and found out that his hands were enveloped in fire, it wasn't as bright as it usually was and that was why he hadn't noticed, plus fire never burned him anyways so he wouldn't have noticed it anyway. Taking a little breath and curling his fingers, as if to make a punch, he snuffed out the flames.

"Sokka are you sure you are okay?" Katara asked worried "this is the fourth time you did... _this_ " she gestured to his hand and mimiched the movement of a flame with her fingers "this week"

"I'm fine, Katara. Besides it _doesn't burn me,_ so... it's not like I can get hurt"

Katara nodded but there was something in her eyes that told him that she had more to say, and that something looked like fear and a bit of distrust. And having his sister giving him that look hurt Sokka more than he wanted to admit.

 _What? She thought he was going to set them on fire accidentally? He had kept his bending hidden for almost seven years, he knew how to control his fire. Even with how volatile his temper had become lately... he wasn't going to burn them... He_ -

  
"Hey, guys! There is an island there!" Aang exclamed, oblivous to the tension between the two siblings. And Sokka opened his mouth to tell him that they could keep stopping everywhere expecially since they had to correct their flying course, but in the end he said nothing. His eyes still fixed on his sister, that had gone back sewing, her hands almost unnoticeably shaking.

  
_Was that his fault?_

* * *

  
After they had landed, a gigant Koi fish had jumped out of the water, and Aang decided to go swimming to ride the fish, Katara sat on the shore, looking at him and pointedly ignoring Sokka, mostly because she knew that it was unfair of her to accuse, even without saying it, Sokka because he could unavvertedly hurt them with his fire. 

  
I _t was just that she couldn't yet accept that her brother, was a firebender, that Sokka shared that awful bending that was used only to hurt people. She couldn't accept that her brother had that same fire burning in him, and she was scared, she was scared expecially of how quick to anger her brother had become since they left home. As if the more he stayed under the same sun of the firebenders, not the faint light of their home, the more he became like them. She didn't want to lose him...._

  
"Katara, look!" Aang said joyously, while riding the elephant koi fish, both his hands on one of the fish's fin spike. Than something else jumped out of the water, an enormous snake like being, that almost bit the koi Aang was riding on. Jumping out and flying Aang returned to land, almost scared.

" _What in the Spirits name was that?!_ " Sokka yelled, grabbing both Aang and Katara and bringing the as far from the shore as he could.

"A... big snake-eel?"Aang said, his voice slightly shaking.

Sokka let them go, and as Aang started redressing, they heard the rustle of leaves. Katara fell into a defensive position, Aang readied himself... and Sokka had to remember to bring out his sword for he too was about to fall in to his bending stance, but he couldn't not in Earth Kingdom territory, they'd kill them if they thought he, Katara and Aang were Fire Nation's spies.

  
Then they were attacked, and the warriors were too fast, too strong, and Sokka had to keep his inner fire down even as it burned with the need to survive and attack and... _burn_.

Then something hit him, and everything went black.

* * *

  
When Sokka came back to his senses, he was tied to a pole, together with Katara and Aang. The mysterious warriors in front of them with their war-painted faces, bladed fans in hand and... armoured... _dresses_? 

Now normally Sokka would have made a remark about it being impossible that he was beaten by girls... but that would have been before the Southern Temple. _There had been women in the Fire Nation soldiers he had freed, and if the Fire Nation deemed women good enough to fight even an hundred years ago, why would the other nations don't do the same?_

So he kept silent.

  
And kept being silent even as they were threatened to be fed to the unagi, which Sokka supposed was the name of the snake-eel monster that attacked Aang before. Even as his inner fire burned hotter and hotter, begging him to let it loose, to save their life.

"Why did you came here?" an old man, maybe the island's chief, asked.

"To ride the elephant koi fish, sir!" Aang answered innocently.

Then the chief started telling them of how his island had stayed out of the war. It was such a long winded speech that even with the threat of death hanging upon their heads, Sokka found it boring.

Then Aang somehow guessed the name of the island, and revealed his identity as the Avatar, proving it by doing the same trick with the marbles that he had shown them some days before.

And so they were freed, since ' _A friend of the Avatar is a friend of Kyoshi's Island_ ' apparently. Sokka couldn't stop himself but think if they would have been so friendly if they knew that he was a firebender, something told him that they'd try to kill him even with him being a friend of the Avatar.

* * *

  
And so the day passed, Aang seemed to like it here, though he and Katara weren't of the same view. Katara because she was getting jealous of all the attention Aang was getting by the girls of the island, and Sokka because as the day passed it became more and more difficult to keep his secret hidden. He had got to comfortable with letting his inner fire breath, to let it out sometimes was it to try some new move that came to his mind or to lit a fire so that Katara could cook or to keep them warm. And now he couldn't and that was making him feel on edge, like there was too much warmth inside him, like he needed to let off some steam or he ended up setting something on fire accidentally.

Not even the training with the Kyoshi warriors was helping, because even though it left him exausted, it didn't do nothing to calm his fire down, instead if possible it riled it up even more, with ideas on how he could lit on fire the air moved by his bladed fans, or that wiht how quick and high he could kick now he could literally create an arch of fire.

"We have to get out of here" Katara said him one day.

"I agree" he quipped before she continued.

"I know you are training with the-... wait you agreed?"

"Yeah, I can't stay here any longer. It's not that the people aren't _welcoming_ or someting like that but..." he stopped himself, how would Katara look at him if he were to say that he felt like he had to put something on fire just to let it out, to feel better.

Katara seemed finally to notice that something wasn't alright with him. "Sokka, are... _you feeling okay_?" she asked, putting one of her hand on his forehead as if to see if something was wrong, just to flinch away as if she got burned. "You... you are _burning_... It's everything alright. As this to do with your... _bending_?" she asked in a whisper.

"I... got to comfortable. Since you and Aang know... what am I... I got careless... I let my fire out everytime it wanted to...and now that I can't... let's just say that... it isn't happy to be back at being so contained..."

And when he saw the look his sister sent him... _Sokka just wanted that he had stayed silent_.

* * *

  
Luckly or... not, depending on the point of view, the Fire Prince came after a while. Unluckly this time he seemed to not have any reservation in burning Kyoshi to the ground. So, Sokka, Katara had to fight him, Aang was somewhere but Katara didn' tell him where.

Sokka fought against the Fire Nation soldiers, only using his swords, and he wasn't sure of why but everytime the looked at him in the eyes they seemed to falter, shoked but it always gave him a clean shot to knock them unconscious so, he didn't question it too much.

Sokka tried not to use his fire at the best of his ability. Using only his sword, his boomerang and the bladed fan, Suki gave him. But then he saw a kid, surrounded by flames, burning wood that was about to fall on him. And he couldn't let that kid die when he had the means to save him. 

So he sprinted and bent the fire away.

"it's okay, it's okay" he whispered over the crackling of flames "you are safe now"

But the kid looked at him with horror, even more afraid than before.

"So you are a _Fire Nation spy_ after all" Suki spit, two other Kyoshi warriors that brought the kid back. "And to think that you were able to fool us all into thinking you were one of the good guys"

"No! Suki wait! I'm... I'm not a spy" he yelled, backing up as Suki and the warriors advanced. Suki scoffed.

"No, obviously you are just a _firebender_ " she remarked sarcastically

Sokka nodded " _Th-That's exactly it_ , I'm just a firebender, I'm not one of them"

Suki opened up her bladed fan. " Sorry, Sokka, if that's even your name, but I don't trust you _ashmakers_ "

Sokka jumped back as Suki and Jin attacked, managing just by a hair to not get his throat cut by their fans. He... he couldn't attack them, he couldn't!

"Yeah, run! We'll get you as we got all the others!"

And run, Sokka did. Like a coward, he ran and ran, passing in between flames that didn't burn him but that ate at his Kyoshi warrior dress and made his make-up run in thick, greasy streaks. He ran until somebody grabbed him from the arm and dragged him away from his blind run, a knife passed were he was before and got stuck on a burning wooden pole.

"Ehy, ehy you are alright, they didn't get you" said a kind voice, though it sounded muted as if speaking through something. "It's alright, breathe, kid, breathe" 

So he did, taking deep, as he could, breaths that tasted like ash and fire, listening to whoever had been so kind to help him.

"See, it's better now" the kind voice said. And Sokka rised his eyes to thank the stranger that saved him just to scramble back, when his eyes met the white metal of the mask of a Fire Nation soldier. The man raised his hands, slowly. As if to say that he didn't have any intention to attack him.

"I'm not going to harm you" he said, his voce still kind and unfased as if he had expected him to react like that. "I don't know what these... _people_ " he gritted out the word, his voice losing that warm kindness for a moment, "told you, but we don't attack our own. Expecially those that are not enemies by choice. I saw them try to kill you, just because you had enough honor to save that kid" the man said.

"I... I am your enemy though..." Sokka said, his voice scared and still trembling.

"You were until I saw them attack you.... that told me everything I needed to know." a little pause, the soldier looked up behind his shoulder, then lent him a hand "Come on, now, we have to go before your want-to-be-killers arrive here" 

And Sokka knew he should have refused, but... _Suki, Suki that was his friend tried to kill him... because he saved someone... while this soldier... this soldier was saving him, just for what he was, he didn't even ask why he was dressed as he was, why was he with Kyoshi's people, he didn't ask anything just... tried to help him because he was a firebender like him._

Sokka took the man's hand, and let him help him to his feet.

"Let's go" the soldier said and Sokka followed. He guided him through the flames, probably to his group and Sokka knew he should leave, he wasn't one of them. They were his enemies, he shouldn't be here, doing this. He should be with his sister fighiting these soldiers, not following one of them to the others.

"I am Kay, by the way" the man, Kay, said

"Sokka" he muttered in answer. 

Kay nodded, and they continued moving. The sound of the fight were getting fainter, as if it was ending. _But who was winning...?_

"Kay!" they heard a voice, and while they approached Sokka recognized the soldier as one of those he knocked out after bringing him down from his Komodo-rhino.

"Han, we are still in the middle of a fight, stop flailing you arms!" Kay said, but there was an hint of amusement in his voice, despite the warning.

"And who's this...-wait! You are the one who attacked me" Han moved as if to grab him away from Kay and... probably try to kill him too, as Suki had done. Instintively, Sokka moved away from Kay and brought fire around him. 

He heard the soldiers around him gasp.

" _Blue... that's... that's blue fire_ " one of them whispered.

" _Agni's Grace.._." said another.

Before anything else happened rain started to fall, dosing of the fires that were burning the town,Sokka's fire crackled and hissed but didn't went out completely, still protecting him but now low enough that he could see the soldiers' masks.

A shade flew above them, the unagi, hissed as it spit water from its mouth.

  
" _What in Agni's Grace is that thing?!_ "

And before he could stop it Sokka found himself chuckling at that exclamation so similar to his own the first time he saw it.

"That would be the unagi" he answered "Which means that Kyoshi's people have won... you... better go back to the Prince's ship..." he continued, his voce almost quiet, why was he trying to save them... _oh, right... they were soldiers, warriors like himself and his father, they were just following orders, and one of them had helped him... there was no reason for all of them to... get_ captured _for their superiors order_.

"You should come with us" 

"Yeah... _no_ , I'm not... _one of you_ "

"They will kill you, Sokka" Kay said "They will not care if you are not 'one of us' because you are _One of Us_... and we children of the Sun look after one another... when we can..."

"So Sokka was... your real name" 

The soldiers took a defensive stance, when they heard Suki's voice, and Sokka reluctantly did the same. Blue fire burning on his palms.

"And your ' _friend_ ' is right, you better leave this island with your people or you'll not leave it at all"

"They are-" Sokka started

"After all, friend of the Avatar or not the only good firebender is a dead firebender. Go with the other ashmakers, _traitor_ " 

Sokka looked at her, feeling betrayed... _did everything he did became nothing? Was she really just... going to call him an enemy because of something he couldn't control? Was he really worth only his bending? Couldn't she see that he was still Sokka even if he could bend fire?_

His blue flames stuttered, weaking.

  
_Was he really only what he could bend for them? After all the weeks they passed together? Was he really worth that little for them?_

  
The glow of his flames took an orange hue.

  
_But it wasn't just Suki was it? Even Katara is own sister looked at him like he was a monster when she thought he wasn't watching, even Katara thought of him as dangerous because of his fire, even her, who should have understood because she was a bender too, looked at him with unease when he 'played' with the flames, even if he was doing it just to feel better, closer to his element._

  
_And he knew that maybe he was being rash and selfish, and maybe even a bit too quick to judge, but he had been cut from his fire for so long because of_ everyone fear _, and now that he had got in touch with it he had to suffocate it again just because people couldn't differentiate him from the 'evil' firebenders._

_And the only ones who had accepted him had been the 'evil' firebender, the ghosts that had been awed by his fire instead of scared, that had been grateful of the fact that he was saving them, while Suki had tried to kill him because he saved one of her people. It had been an 'evil' firebender that had saved him from Suki's knife, even knowing that he was the enemy._

  
' _The only good firebender is a dead firebender_ ' Suki had said. Well, he wasn't just a fire bender he was a warrior too. And warriors don't lay down and die without fighting.  
The flames in his hands started getting hotter and hotter, eating all of the fear and anger and self-hatred, and the feeling of deep betrayal he was feeling, the flames ate it all.

Getting bigger and hotter, red to orange; orange to blue; blue to _white_.

  
"That's _phoenix fire_..." said one of the soldiers with a gasp. But Sokka paid it no thought.

His eyes on Suki. "Well then... _you have to kill me_ , because I have no intention of leaving." 

Suki looked frightened but didn't back out. "You firebenders are all the same" 

Sokka moved away from the soldiers, as Suki launched herself to attack. Sokka avoided her attack and threw white fire at her, trying to not... hurt her... much. After all she tried to kill him so it wasn't like he was going to go easy with her.

They fought for a while, the soldiers stopping the other Kyoshi's warrior to attack.

Sokka prepared himself to throw a fireball seeing that Suki was getting slower. 

And that's when it _happened_.

_Cold._

_He felt just cold._

_His arms and hands and body locked under a layer of ice_.

"Suki, are you okay?" 

Katara. It was Katara. His sister looked at him, with f _ear and anger... she looked at him like he wasn't her_ brother _. Like he was a_ stranger _... like he was one of the Fire Nation soldiers_.

"Yeah, I'm. He didn't manage to hit me, even if he tried"

Katara nodded, her eyes still on him. "Why did you did that Sokka? Why... _did you side with them?!_ "

"I didn't _side_ with them!" he said, trying to break the ice, he couldn't.

"Well, it doesn't look like it to me. You were attacking her, you were attacking _your friend_!"

"She isn't my friend! She tried to _kill me!_ "Sokka shouted, his fire melted the ice, burning brightly in hands. "I saved one of her people and she tried to kill me!" H _e couldn't breathe... it was getting too warm. It was..._

"Sokka?Sokka!" Katara yelled but _he couldn't see her there was too much fire, the air was too hot. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't. He couldn't_!

"Get back!" he heard. The voice sounded like, Han's. "Get back! Get back or he'll burn you to the bone!" 

_There was too much fire, he didn't know what to do._

_It was too hot._

_Too bright._

_Too strong, it was eating at his panic and fear and he didn't know how to stop it._

_A flash._

_Then it was black._

* * *

"You did enough" Kay said, his voice filled with venom, as he and his comrades stopped the water savage from touching the boy. The ground around him scorched, and burning, the rock under the soil melted.

In all his years of service, Kay had never saw such powerful fire. _Phoenix fire, indeed_. White and powerful, _unstoppable_ by any meaning. He thought it was only a legend, but obviously their Prince who was full of faith would have found not one but _two legends_. The _Avatar_ , even after he had been pronounced death a century ago, and a boy that beared the power of the Phoenix fire. 

The boy was to be protected, he should stay with his people, not with...- _Kay looked at the water savage and the earth paesant_ \- not with these _people_.  
Kay picked the boy up, he was so hot he could feel it through his armor. But not so hot that he couldn't bear it. 

"Be grateful that we didn't want your deaths to burden him" he spit, and then went back to the Prince ship, his comrades in tow. If the savage tried to stop them he wasn't sure, too focused on his objective.

The Prince would be happy to hear that even if they didn't got the Avatar, they got the kid back.

 _How did the Prince call him? Oh, right..._ Kira _. Yes, '_ Light _' was was a much more fitting name than '_ Ocean'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Suki is a bit OOC(maybe) but she is feeling as betrayed as Sokka, and just so you know, Katara did try to stop Kay and the others from 'kidnapping' Sokka but failed.  
> 


	5. Not a Prisoner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka wakes up on the Wani, and...sadly he realizes that his enemies appear to care more about him than his own sister had since she discovered his secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but I've had a fever and my widsome teeth are starting to 'grow' now and it hurts so much!! >.< That I've not been able to sit down and write for most of the time.

Kuzon, medic on board of the Wani, had been tending to young Kira - _he knew that the boy's name was another but how could he call him with such a water name when even now he could control the fires around him with his breath?_ \- since he had been brough on board two days ago.

He had still to regain consciousness but from what Kay and Han had reported it wasn't that surprising, he had lost control, using more of his energy than he normally would. His body was recovering, keeping him asleep as his inner fire returned to its normal strenght.

And Kuzon wasn't sure when exactly the boy would wake up, he was so thin. Those savages must not have fed him properly, letting his inner fire slowly consume him. The medic closed his fists, taking slow breaths. His own fire bending was not that strong but he could not let his anger best him and disturb the boy's sleep.

The fires in the lanters rose, orange slightly tinted of blue near the points licking at the glass covers like they wented to melt it. The boy started stirring, his breath quickening in... _fear_... maybe?

Kuzon opened his mouth to reassure the boy, but no words left it, as the boy's eyes snapped open, his irises were... of a hue that Kuzon, everyone in the Fire Nation really, could recognize immediately _amber alight with a golden light_.

_The eyes of the Dragon Kin_.

  
_The eyes of the Royal Family_.

Kira, Sokka, was about to rush out the bed, trying to run away. Afraid, of course, the poor boy didn't know where he was, he didn't know that _he was safer_ than he had ever been.

Kuzon slowly raised his hands, in the universal sign used to rappresent no intent to harm. 

Sokka seemed to calm down a bit at that. "Where am I?" He croaked, his voice held the slight rasp of the roar of a dragon just like the Prince's, but it showed his confusion and suspect also.

"On the _Wani_ , the personal ship of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation" Kuzon answered, there were no real reasons to hide the truth. _After all if they lied the wouldn't be any better than the savages who had hidden this boy, this little drake from his people_.

"I'll not say anything" Sokka gritted out, looking at him defiantly, his hands closed around a small bunch of the blanket that covered him. Luckly, like most of the fabric used in the Fire Nation, the blanket was fire resistant or it would have probably been already set on fire by the nervous teen. Then Kuzon gaze was captured by another detail, the boy's nails were short almost as his own. The boy was a Dragon kin and the savages trimmed his claws short.... _short as those of the common folk_. 

That was... _That looked so wrong_. The Dragon kin, like the Prince, were ought to have longer, sharper nails not to have them look like those of a _common worker_...

"We will not interrogate you" Kuzon said forcing himself to look the boy in the eyes while he spoke to him. Still offended for what those savages had done to him. That was an offense to Agni himself to try and mould a Dragon kin as if they were commoners.

"Then... why bring me here?" Sokka asked, suspicion clear in his voice.

' _to save you_ ' was the first thing that Kuzon thought, but he knew he couldn't say that. Sokka wouldn't believe him, he thought that he was one of... _those enemies_. And not one of them.

"Firebeneders have to stay with their own"

"I'm not one of... ' _your own_ ', I'm a Warrior of the Southern Water Tribe not one of you.." he snapped.

"The world out there will not care of your heritage claims, they see fire, they will see their enemy even if you are... _not_."Kuzon explained " _You are safer with us_ "

Sokka looked down at the blanket, and remembered how Suki had reacted. How Kay, a fire nation soldier... _his enemy_ , had _saved_ him. _This man was right wasn't he? He was safer between_ his enemies _than out there_...

"What did I do to deserve this..." Sokka muttered more to himself than to the man in the room with him. But the other heard him anyway.

"I know that it may not seem like it at the moment. But even with all the things that are said on us, _Agni blessed you_ "

_Blessed? No... he was cursed_ , Sokka thought. 

  
Then the man asked him how he was feeling, if there was something that felt not right. Before finally telling him his name. Kuzon.

Sokka answered.

And though all of this situation didn't sit right with him, at least they weren't trying to have him to betray the Avatar... _at least right now_. Sokka was sure that Zuko wouldn't be as pleasant as Kuzon. 

But even if he was just answering questions about his health. It felt _good_ to talk to someone who didn't look at him as if he were a monster. For Kuzon looked at him like anyone would look at a _person_ , and was more worried about his health than even his own sister Katara had been in this last weeks. And yes, maybe it was because Kuzon was just doing his work, he was a medic after all, but it felt good nontheless.

* * *

Herbalist Zhao, who had been an Army officer before being discharged ( _for trying to save his comrades from a suicidal order of their commander_ ) and had found a position on the _Wani_ just for his knowledge on medicinal herbs and how to prepare them, had never seen Kuzon so angry. 

Zhao had thought that Kuzon would be happy to finally see the young Kira-Sokka up, but instead he was angry, furious almost. Sparks flying from his mouth since he had returned from the infirmary.

"Kuzon, what happened?" he asked, his comrade, and friend, stopped pacing arround the little room that was Zhao's workplace.

"They were _starving him,_ Zhao that's what happened!" Kuzon snapped, one of the sparks from his mouth landed almost too close to the open jar that contained Earth Kingdom Chamomille.

"They were... what?" Zhao said, shocked. _Who in their right minds would starve a kid?_

"The young drake told me that the Avatar burned all the meat they had, and that he was forcing him to eat just the berries they found. _Berries_ , Zhao! Those alone _aren't enough to keep a toddler with the spark_ _healthy_ , imagine a boy with a inner fire as hot as that boy!"

"Why would they... _that's torture_... everyone knows that firebenders need to eat more than other benders... why would..." Zhao said, still to shocked to form a coherent phrase. Then his mind cought on something else. "' _Little drake?_ '"

Kuzon looked at him. "His eyes are the same shade as those of our Prince, and his fire is so powerful. He is a Dragon Kin like the Royal Family... he must be"

Zhao nodded almost solemnly. "We'll protect the little drake just like we do with our Prince, it is what's right"

"It is" Kuzon said, his anger still near the surfice but he was slowly regain control over it.

"Let's hope that he'll see that we are not his enemies, sooner rather than later... I'd hate to see him yearn for those bastards' company"

Kuzon nodded.

"There... is something I can do to help you? Or you came here to only to tell me how... _they_... treated him?"

"No, no, I came to ask for something also. I need some salves to treat ice burns."

Zhao nodded. "I'll have them ready at midday, Kuzon. For now I can give you some chamomille oil" He said, before turning away for a moment, picking a little bottle full midway with a golden yellow oil. And then turning back at Kuzon giving him the bottle.

"I'll return at midday." Kuzon said before thanking him and saying some parting words, as he went back to the infirmary.

Zhao started working on the salves. And for once in his life since he was discharged from the Army was almost glad that he couldn't bend fire anymore or all the herbs in his lab, would have been turned to ashes by the fiery force of his anger.

The only thing that quieted his anger just of a notch was that at least _the boy was safe now_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kuzon has made up his mind about why Sokka has such a strong fire... Just like Zuko had after seeing his eyes.  
> As always people make their congectures about things just by having some clues.  
> And poor Sokka almost feels more welcome on a ship filled with his enemies that he had on Appa with his sister...and on Kyoshi's Island with Suki...


	6. Afraid and Confused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka is confused about why his enemies are so kind... and afraid of losing control of his fire again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY! I'm so sorry for disappearing and putting the story on hold! But the problem with my widsome teeth, I got a fever and after that an ear infection that lasted for three weeks, and another fever after that... It is all gone away luckily now, but still I'm sorry if I made you wait so much. I hope the new chapter will be worth the wait, sorry again!!  
> And thank you for all your beautiful comments in the while!!

Kuzon had been... _kind_. 

He had took care of the slight ice-burns that were on his arms, explaining him every little thing that he was doing, understanding his concerns and wanting to put him at ease while he medicated the ice-burns with the chamomille oil.

If not for the fact that those wounds as light as they were, had been caused by _his sister_ , he would've been almost surprised by the fact that ice had hurt him. He grew up surrounded by ice and snow... but then his skin was hot as if it was burning when... _when..._

Sokka brought himself out of his thoughts, his hands, bandaged as well as his arms, closed tightly on the blanket, scrunching up the soft, if a bit rough in texture, cloth. The flames that burned in the lanterns rose up for a moment almost as if sensing his turmoil, then subsided as he took some deep breaths. 

He still couldn't believe that... _his own sister_ had... _attacked_ him, that she had tried to _froze him_... He was fighting, _fighting for_ his _life_ , and she had immobilized him... _what, what if Suki had been attacking him in that moment instead of backing away? He... he would have been_ dead _. Suki would have killed him and... and Katara would have_ helped her, if unintentionally.

For a moment dread and fear and sorrow took a hold of him, his vision blurred up with tears. He blinked rapidly, trying to banish the tears away. He was already in enemy territory, he couldn't let them see that he was... _weak_. Even if Kuzon had said that they wouldn't hurt him, _why would he have to believe that? If his own sister didn't have any qualms in attacking him, why would his enemies have them?_

His vision blurred up some more, and Sokka closed his eyes. Pushing away all the sorrow and fear, pushing them as far back in his mind as he could, he had to be strong, he couldn't be... so emotional, not now. Not when he wasn't safe... _but then he had never been really safe anywhere, hadn't he? People hated firebenders, they hated him... just for the fire that burned in him._

A fire that he didn't even wanted in the first place. _Why did people thought they had the right to hate him for something that he couldn't control? It wasn't_ his fault... _if he could, he would have extinguished that flame_ , he tried so, so hard to snuff it out. But he couldn't. It was _part_ of _him_... but even then that didn't make him any worse, he was still Sokka, being a firebender didn't change a thing! _Why couldn't_ people _... why couldn't_ Katara _and_ Suki _understand?!_

  
Sokka heard the crackle of a flame, as dull as it was behind the glass. All the fires around him-behind their glass covers-were burning bright, like glowing sapphires, the slightest tint of white on the curling points.

 _White_ as the fire that ate every emotion that he poured into it.

 _White_ as the fire that surrounded him, crackling and rising like a wall of ice from an iceberg that plunged into the ocean just to get spit out fast and dangerous.

 _White_ as the fire that ate at his panic and rose and _rose_ until he couldn't control it anymore.

The fire in the lanters crackled and sparkled, licking at the glass, the surface, though heat resistant, was starting to redden... to _melt_.

Sokka's eyes widened at the sight, trying to breathe, to get his- _was that even his_ -fire under control, but more he tried, _whiter_ the flame got. Sokka shut his eyes, closing his hands in fists tighter and tighter until it hurt. All the flames died out, with a final splutter of sparks. The glass cooling down with visible soot black spots tainting its transparence.

For a fleeting moment, Sokka hoped that they, the other firebenders, wouldn't get mad at his lack of control.

* * *

  
When Kuzon got back into the infirmary, he immediatly noticed that something was wrong even before completely opening the door. 

The faint smell of smoke and burnt glass put him on alert and made his worry grow. Still he carefully opened the metal door, his hands grasped tightly the simple metal tray he had brought with him.

" _Sokka_?" he asked softly "Is everything alright?"

  
Before the boy could answer, Kuzon entered the infirmary, too worried to wait for an answer.

Everything seemed in its place, but the room was noticeably darker. All the lanterns were out he noticed, luckily the sun was still quite high on the sky so it wasn't that much of an hindrance as it could have been.

"Y-yeah... I...uhm... sorry for the lanterns"

  
Kuzon's attention snapped back on Sokka, the boy didn't meet his eyes, looking down on his bandaged hands. The medic looked confused at him for an instant before actually noticing the faint soot stains on the glass covers of the lanterns.

"It's alright" he answered, his voice soft "Don't worry, you didn't damage them... they are quite fire resistant" he let a small smile bend his lips as he neared the bed, looking attentively at Sokka. He seemed alright, if a bit shaken and worried, his golden eyes glowed faintly in the dawning light of the sun. But that was expected since he hadn't been fed correctly by the... people he was travelling with. "I brought you some stew, it has some pig-geese jerky bits added in, and shouldn't be too spicy" he added, and felt his smile grow a bit at the way Sokka's eyes sparkled, rising to look at the bowl on the tray.

The boy straighten up a bit, sitting against the pillow as he had done while he was bandaging his arms, and thanked him. He handed him the tray and Sokka thanked him again, without even thinking about it. But then the boy froze, his entusiasm fell, disappearing like ash in the wind.

"Why are you so... _kind_ with me?" Sokka asked, his eyes fixed down on the bowl. His voice was low enough that even with how close he was, Kuzon almost didn't hear him.

  
"I told you, you are one of _Us_. We take care of our own,"Kuzon answered "Flames always band together to grow and get stronger, _don't they_? We are flames... and you don't have to stay alone in the cold" 

  
Sokka remained silent for a while, his eyes didn't move from the point he was staring at. "Like penguin-seals flock together?"

  
Kuzon stared at him, confused at the simil. "Yes, something like that." he said nodding, writing the strange phrase off as a Water Tribe proverb.

  
Sokka nodded silently and then started eating his stew.

  
Kuzon smiled at the boy, maybe there was some _hope_ that he would see that he was _safer_ with them. After all, as Kuzon said times and times again, he was one of them. And they would have protected him, as this is the _Way of the Sun_.


	7. Like penguin-seals...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two weeks have passed since Kyoshi. Sokka is starting to feel more at ease with the firebenders, though he still sees them as the enemy.   
> During a spar with one of the soldiers, Sokka discovers something new about his fire.  
> And gets to finally officially meet the Prince and the General.

Sokka didn't know were they were, only that they were following Aang, which was something he had somehow to disturb or hinder as he could. But he was sure that two weeks had passed since... _Kyoshi_ , in this time, his ice-burns were healed, leaving nothing but a faint shiny outline were the wounds had scarred.

And he had learned some more about his firebending from Kuzon, who didn't have any problems in teaching him how firebending worked, to the point that he actually taught him some breathing techniques to keep his fire in check.

Kuzon was kind, and he always talked about how firebenders protected each other and things like that. But Sokka couldn't forget his answer to his question.  
As much as Kuzon talked about protection and safety, he had admitted that firebenders didn't like _weakness_ , that as penguin-seals they flocked together but attacked and shunned the weak, and it was something that Sokka couldn't forget no matter how _good_ Kuzon tried to make their traditions look like.

Days had passed from the time they first talked and Sokka was finally out of the infirmary. He had still to meet the Prince or the General, but since he didn't actually want to meet any of the Royals he was quite alright with the fact.

The other firebenders, and non-benders(and hadn't that been a surprise that there were non-benders on the Prince personal ship?), were bearable, they acted like... normal people, like the warriors from his tribe, they were friends and comrades and they actually seemed to act as if there wasn't any difference between him- _even if he was a warrior from the Southern Water Tribe_ -and them. But Sokka was sure that Royals wouldn't have acted as the normal people would. 

_They were pratically the same blood as the bastards that started the War, so..._

Sokka was... training with Aito, a young firebender that usually worked down in the bowels of the ship with the Ingeneer and Machinist, up on the deck of the Fire Nation ship since the Prince and General and some other of the warriors were on land to buy supplies and gather new informations on the wherabouts of the Avatar. 

Sokka was careful, knowing that his fire was times hotter than Aito red-orange fire.

  
Sokka sent a blast of fire against the red-orange fire wall that Aito raised, the flames sparkled and crackled, clashing together. His blue-white fire dissipating the red-orange in a strange almost entrahlling way, the two fires curling together in the air the hotter one enveloping the colder before dying out, dissipating in the air with quick-to-disappear sparkles.

Some of the other warriors- _soldiers, why was he starting to think of them as warriors?!They_ weren't his people _, they weren't!_ \- were watching them train, some ready to intervene should one of them(likely Sokka) lose control of their fire, some just in awe of the powerful blue-white fire he was able to produce.

Another blast, then Sokka quickly moved to the left dodging a fireball that was almost entirely red, reading himself to sent a quick flare against the other.

Then he heard it, the slightly harsh-sounding voice of the Fire Nation Prince, followed by the softer voice of the General. 

Sokka wasn't sure of what he felt in the moment he saw them come on board, and look at him. But he realized that his fire had grown even hotter and whiter too late.

  
 _No! He didn't want to hurt Aito! He was...was a_ warrior _, like him, he was..was starting to be almost a friend. He didn't want to hurt him!_

  
But it was too late, the flare of white flames had enveloped the young soldier.

  
Sokka stopped immediatly, snuffing his flames as fast as he could. But it was too late, _too late_...!

  
Then in his panic he realized that there was no screaming, not from the other firebenders, nor from the Prince and the General or... _from Aito_.

  
Sokka raised his eyes, Aito was there, perfectly fine, not even a slight burn on him yet... there were white flames on his hands and clothes, but they weren't burning.

Aito was looking at him, but he wasn't afraid or angry, he was surprised and had even a slight awed smile on his lips as he played around with the white flames that weren't hurting him, before snuffing them out.

"What was that?" the gruff, somewhat harsh, voice of the Prince broke the silence.

All of the soldiers gave the Prince and the General a respectful bow, as they realized their presence. Sokka remained immobile. Still in shock from what had just now happened.

"That would be _Phoenix Fire_ , Prince Zuko" the soft voice of the General said, answering the question of the Prince. "One of the finest example of firebending after the Blue Fire, and the Cold Fire, though it was considered only part of the legends until now. It wass said that: it damages only what it's bender wants to damage. Which means that our friend from the Southern Tribe didn't want any harm to come to Sailor Aito." 

The Prince nodded if somewhat confused. Sokka watched the two Royals, they were... different from what he imagined. First he thought that the Prince would have spit fire and sparks and be angry that he was on the deck sparring with one of his men like he was one of them, but he wasn't. And the General was... well not what he had expected from the tales he had heard of the Dragon of the West.

While the other warriors - _soldiers, they were soldiers not warriors_ \- left the deck to return to their post, the attention of the two Royals fell on Sokka, and he started feeling uneasy... _would they start asking him questions? To demand that he told them where the Avatar was?_

The General smiled at him, kind, just as Kuzon was kind. "It's well to see you up and well enough to train, young Sokka" 

Sokka looked at the man, perplexed. He... wasn't expecting this to be the first words the Dragon of the West ever told to him... "I... uh... thank you... General?"

The man smiled. "No need to call me General, I am retaired you see. But you can call me Iroh."

Sokka nodded lightly, still confused of what was happening. First his flames that didn't burn Aito, now the Dragon of the West that was acting so kind and pleasant... It was confusing.

The Prince muttered something under his breath, then looked at him, still there was no anger there, maybe a slight curiosity. Yet even his eyes looked strangely kind, if frowned, which he wasn't expecting from the boy that burned down Kyoshi and threatened to do the same with his own village.

"Would you like to join us for tea, Sokka?" The General, Iroh, asked. The Prince huffed saying that they didn't have time for tea, but didn't protest that much.

Even if perplexed Sokka accepted, it was impolite to refuse tea after all. Though now thinking of it he didn't know what was right or wrong in regards of tea in the Fire Nation traditions... Wonderful that was just what he needed the possibility of disrespecting by error the Prince or the General, well too late to refuse the invite now...

Well at least he could get a better look at how the two Royals acted, which was good. And which would be good information for when he got to return to Aang and... _Katara_ again.

  
_If... if his friend and sister even wanted him back..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little heads up for next chapter. I know that the Water Tribes culture is based on the inuit culture. But since I can't find anything about the inuit tea culture, or if they have one, I decided(since I'm Russian) to make the Water Tribes' tea culture inspired from Russian tea culture... Hope this doesn't offend anyone.


End file.
